Fistful of Lead: Under the Blood Moon

 I finally got another demo game of Fistful of Lead going at my local game store, Harlequin Hobby, today. A guy was nice enough to drive out to Buffalo from Rochester for it, and in a few weeks' time I'll return the favor and drive out to Rochester so he can run a demo game of Test of Honour for me, which I'm looking forward to. 

I put on the scenario "Under the Blood Moon," out of the "Tales of Horror" expansion; I played Werewolves, and my opponent took control of Lefty LaRue and his band of intrepid Canadian monster hunters. 

As an aside, right after I got things set up, one of the Warhammer 40K players in the store came over, examined the table, looked directly at the cover of the Fistful of Lead rulebook, and asked me if this was Trench Crusade. I tried giving him the spiel of what Fistful of Lead was and how it played, but his eyes glazed right over and he wandered away pretty quickly. Ah well.

Half the hunters (in this case, Lefty himself, Sgt. Blaine of the RCMP, and a trio of stalwart but largely-ineffectual Mounties - a Grunt Group, in the parlance of the game) were in the cabin in the center of the table, while each turn after the first my opponent would roll to see if the remaining two (Quinn the Eskimo and Frenchie Sinclair) would arrive by the main road. Meanwhile, my werewolves would be trying to get into the cabin and eat the delicious hunters and lumberjack family inside. The game would end automatically at the end of the 7th turn as the sun rose and drove the werewolves away. 

The first few turns were a bit of a stalemate; the werewolves rolled abysmally while trying to break down the doors to the cabin, and my opponent rolled really high while trying to bring his reinforcements on to the board. Once Quinn and Frenchie arrived, however, they quickly started stacking Shock and Wound tokens on to the leader of the Werewolf pack.

I didn't take a lot of pictures during the game.

Two of the lesser werewolves ended up fleeing the table due to poor Recovery rolls while trying to shrug off the Shock tokens they were accumulating from the rifles of Lefty and the Mounties, and the pack leader actually succumbed to his wounds while trying to stand back up. With the sun rising at the end of the 7th turn, Lefty and Quinn finished off the last werewolf. One Mountie had fled the table due to a failed Recovery roll, and one had been eaten by a werewolf, but the named characters in the hunter group were all unscathed. 

All in all, a really good game. My opponent and I agreed that if I'd succeeded in breaking down a door into the cabin on turn 2 or 3, the game likely would have gone very differently and might have been a win for the werewolves. He had a great time, and said he'd likely be adding Fistful of Lead to his library. So a day well spent! 

Wargames Among the Warplanes, Spring 2025 Show

 I had an absolutely amazing time today at Wargames Among the Warplanes, a twice-annual 1-day event held at the National Warplanes Museum in beautiful Geneseo, New York. I went to college in Geneseo, and never knew there was a warplanes museum five minutes from campus, until now. 

Truth be told, I almost didn't make it to the show today - in the past week I've pinched a nerve in my shoulder and had my car break down (was thankfully able to get it repaired - to the tune of $1500 - on Thursday!) and this morning I woke up queasy, with last night's dinner disagreeing vigorously. I'm so glad I soldiered through and made it though. 

I ran a homebrew scenario for Fistful of Lead for four players, with me just standing to the side and refereeing. Here's the precis the players were given:

 Angela Dellamorte, the daughter of the head of the Dellamorte crime family, has been kidnapped by the Jamaican Kings, an upstart gang newly arrived in town. Her father has tasked his top lieutenants with getting her back and punishing her kidnappers. The lieutenants see an opportunity to get each other out of the way and ensure their own advancement in the family. After all, once the bullets start flying, who's to say who shot who?  

Everyone except the Jamaicans were armed exclusively with short-range weapons - pistols, submachine guns, and shotguns. The Jamaicans had a trio of submachine guns, as well as an automatic rifle and a LMG being carried by their hulking behemoth of a leader. I figured the Jamaicans could stand to have a little extra firepower since they were under siege and outnumbered, and the shorter ranges would make players move their figures around the board instead of just hunkering down and sniping at each other.

Additionally, there were a few side-missions that could be undertaken for additional victory points - collecting pallets of laundered money and hard drugs and carrying them off the table, giving a sympathetic interview with the TV news crew, and trading in their small arms for an unlicensed automatic rifle from the guy running the fireworks stand. 

Not to toot my own horn too hard or anything, but my table looked great and I got a ton of compliments on my terrain and my figures as well, which felt really good. 

To my very great surprise, I actually had more buildings than would fit on the table. Go me!

The players had a great time, especially once they learned they could hotwire the various vehicles on the table and go on vehicular manslaughter joyrides. One gang quickly piled into the Taco Truck and went on an absolute rampage of destruction before totaling it against the front of the bingo hall. Most of the pictures I took were of that rampage:

Get in, youse guys, we're going on a rampage.

They didn't even run these guys over, just gave 'em a driveby shotgunning.

Ramming speed!

The destruction smelled amazing, though.

The mobster known as "Fat Paulie" was ultimately the winner - having rescued Angela Dellamorte, put two rival gang leaders (and most of their henchmen) out of action, and having a gang member upgrade their weapon at the fireworks stand. The Jamaicans came in second place, having given an interview and collected the laundered money.

Make sure you get my good side, or you'll get on my bad side!

All Paulie is thinking about is the tragic destruction of the taco truck.

I didn't play in anybody else's games (though there was a biplanes vs. King Kong game I would have loved to have played), simply because I had a very long commute and my game took three hours to play through. I did walk around during the lunch break though and took a look at some beautiful tables.

I also had a couple people encourage me to bring my game, or something similar, to Running GAGG - the annual gaming convention put on by the gaming club at the college, which I've been attending for the past 20 years - next year, to increase the number of wargames being played there, and to better promote "Hey! There's more to wargaming than just Warhammer!" to the next generation of gamers. I'm open to the idea, but I might choose to bring something where I don't need a giant tote bin of terrain and can run 30-minute demo games instead of one 3-hour scenario. 

***

Today was really, really good for me. Like, being at Wargames Among the Warplanes today nourished my soul. I've taken a few knocks in the hobby lately - some verbal scrapping with people who think I'm an elitist for wanting to play with painted miniatures, people telling me that seeing my painted miniatures makes them feel bad about their own painting, and so, so, so many people who think tournament Warhammer is the alpha and omega of miniatures wargaming and refuse to even acknowledge that anything else exists. 

It gets discouraging after a while to be steeped in all that, but the congenial atmosphere, good sportsmanship, and just general community spirit I saw today - I helped carry drinks and snacks from the organizer's car into the venue, and had offers to help me carry my tote bins of stuff back to my car when I'd packed up - was reaffirming. This is what I want out of the wargaming hobby. I want more of this atmosphere, this community. I want to spend more time surrounded by people who just want to have a few laughs pushing painted figures around on a table with some nice terrain on it. 

And I'm going to get it. Because in chatting with the organizer, he asked if I'd be open to doing more wargaming outreach-type programs like this. He was so happy to see me add Fistful of Lead to the schedule, because he's played it before and thinks it's a great game, and regretted that he had administrative work to do alongside refereeing a Bolt Action tournament that forced him to miss out on playing it. He mentioned how happy it made him that everybody brought painted figures and terrain to the event today; there was no bare plastic or metal to be seen anywhere except the flea market table. Hearing him say that was music to my ears and affirmed that I was among my tribe. 

Plus, I bought a T-shirt so I'm now officially part of the Greater Niagara Wargamers; next up will be joining the organizer's club, the Whiskey 7 Wargamers. They've got snappy short-sleeve button-down shirts with embroidered club logos. 

I'm excited for the next show, and for what the future holds. 

organizer's photo of me talking through some of the rules with some of my attendees.

Fistful of Lead: Grace Under Fire

 I managed to squeak in a second solo game of Fistful of Lead today, meaning I'm still meeting my self-imposed quota of a minimum of two games a month. One week from today I'll be at Wargames Among the Warplanes, so I laid out some of the modern terrain I've painted recently and got out two of the gangs I'll be taking to that event to test-drive. For a scenario, I reached for my copy of Osprey's "Rogue Stars," by Andrea Sfiligoi. Using the random scenario charts in there, I came up with a Rescue Mission, in a city setting, with a complication of flammable atmosphere.

That came together nicely - the Jamaican Kings gang needed to rescue one of their members from behind a police cordon. Complicating the situation, a broken gas main makes every gunshot a potential explosion. 

"This much space would be $1500/month to rent."

The police would be at -2 to Shoot for the first two turns of the game due to civilians in the area; by the beginning of turn 3, all civilians would have left or taken cover and the penalty would be lifted. For this game, rolling a 1 on a Shoot roll wouldn't result in going Out of Ammo. Instead, it would trigger an explosion - a 5" template would be centered over the shooter, and everyone under it would roll on the Wound chart at +1 to see how much damage they took. 

The first turn was uneventful, with the police largely milling around and the Kings advancing towards the cordon. Winston rounded a corner and made eye contact with officer Beck. The second round opened with her moving into short range and taking a shot, putting him down with a Wound.

Meanwhile, Rosemary entered the pawn shop through the back door and took a shot at officer Rosina through the glass, putting a Shock token on him and sending him running for cover. Delilah moved forward through the alley between the pawn shop and the gas station, and was shot by the police sniper, Ed, who put her Out of Action. 

Garfield, the Kings' leader, moved forward and found himself in a shoving match with officer Scott, a kevlar-clad behemoth as big as he was. The battering ram the SWAT officer was swinging around as a weapon really stung, dealing two Shock tokens with each successful hit.

Winston activated with a Queen of Hearts, shaking off the Wound, standing up and charging officer Beck, putting a Shock token on her. Captain Riggs charged into the pawn shop after Rosemary, arresting her and putting her Out of Action. 

Garfield took another two Shock tokens, only remaining on the board because his "Large" trait gave him four Wounds instead of the usual three. Pushed back by Scott, he unslung his heavy machine gun and opened fire on Scott and Rosina. Winston, knocking Beck out, moved up to join him.

Ed, the sniper, moved into position and shot Garfield in the back, putting him Out of Action (and at this point I'm getting a little frustrated that no one's rolled a 1 while Shooting!)

Winston put more hurt on both Scott and Rosina. Ed took a shot at Winston, who dove for cover behind some crashed cars.

Scott and Rosina tried to make Recovery rolls to stand up despite their wounds, but both not only failed, but bled out! 

Using the freight truck for cover, Winston darted for the Fireworks Stand where Jammin' Trevor was hiding out. Riggs tried to shoot at him but missed wildly. Diving inside, he pulled Trevor to his feet. A rescue had been performed, now to get out!

Riggs tried shooting at the two of them through the open window of the Fireworks Stand and...ROLLED A 1! FINALLY! Normally I roll 2-3 "1s" on Shooting rolls in any given game so I was very surprised it wasn't happening here. He was the only one in range of the explosion and blew himself up, scoring a "9" on the Wound roll for an Out of Action result. 

As Ed rounded the corner, he found himself faced with two angry gang members. Trevor Wounded him and knocked him down, and the two surviving gang members used the opportunity to beat a hasty retreat before reinforcements showed up...

This is what I love about Fistful of Lead. When Delilah and Rosemary were put Out of Action, I felt certain that the Jamaican Kings would lose. They were starting at a disadvantage with one character unavailable until rescued, and losing half their viable crew that fast, I was confident they wouldn't win. So for it to turn around like that was a really nice surprise. 

I think the scenario worked well, though the shooting penalty for the police on the first two turns didn't really come into play at all. I would have been really disappointed if nobody had rolled a 1 while Shooting; like I said, it normally happens 2-3 times a game so I was surprised that it wasn't happening. Luckily, we did finally get that gas explosion and it was pretty satisfying - and helped turn the tide and help the Kings win. 

I'm feeling really good about bringing Fistful of Lead to Wargames Among the Warplanes next week after these practice games. And I'm in the home stretch for painting terrain pieces...I think.

Figures Purchased in 2025: 77

Figures Painted in 2025: 85

Last Two Gangs Finished

 I'm very pleased to announce I've finished the last two gangs I needed for my game at Wargames Among The Warplanes next month. The other four gangs can be seen here and here. Once again, these are a mix of Wargames Foundry "Street Violence" figures and Copplestone Castings "Bad Guys With Guns" from their Future Wars line. 

Fat Paulie and his followers.

"Little" Bobby D. leads a more eccentric crew.

From here on out I can focus on painting buildings and scatter terrain for the next month. Lacking a 4'x4' table, I unrolled a Frontline Games' "Asphalt" neoprene mat on my basement floor and laid out road pieces and my collection of modern buildings to see what kind of layout I could come up with and how many more buildings I would need to "fill" it. 

I'm thinking about resizing my plans to a 3'x3' table so I don't have to worry about adding an extra 5-6 buildings to my workload - and subsequently to the list of things I need to carry from my car to the venue. A 3'x3' fight would also have the six gangs in each other's faces that much faster...

Figures Purchased in 2025: 58

Figures Painted in 2025: 85

Fistful of Lead: "Death From Above!"

Tonight I went out to my local game store and met up with a guy for a game of Fistful of Lead, using the Galactic Heroes sci-fi variant. This was my first time playing a full-sized game against an opponent (not counting the demos I ran last month) since before the pandemic! I brought out my Space Orks, and he had what I think were classic 90s Necromunda gangers of some flavor.

We used a scenario I bought off the Wiley Games website, "Death From Above," for our game tonight; our crews were fighting over possession of the controls for an ancient orbital railgun, which happened to be in the heart of a monster's lair! The monster would appear when a Joker was played, and attack the closest figure (regardless of crew) until it was either slain or another Joker was played.

I brought the monster on the board fairly early, and it ravaged his side for a bit before being dispelled by another Joker, and then a fresh, uninjured one came back on the board later that same turn, at which point it killed my heavy weapons specialist. 

My Ork Warboss arrived at the controls for the orbital weapon fairly quickly, and spent three turns trying to figure out how to activate it. He spent the rest of the game hunched over the controls, firing over and over again and never hitting anything because the template representing the blast radius of each shot kept drifting. 

Honestly, I thought I had the game in the bag towards the end - I had three figures left on the table, he had one, and two of my guys were in close combat with him. Stunningly, he turned it around - he swiftly took care of the two guys on him, reloaded his man-portable heavy laser cannon, closed the distance and sniped my Ork Warboss through a gap in the ruins, killing him instantly with a headshot! 

That's one of the things I love best about Fistful of Lead - you never can tell quite how things are going to turn out, and I was just as happy to be surprised and lose like that as I would have been in victory. 

We'll be meeting up again soon for another game, and we had a few curious onlookers we spoke to who might be interested in joining in the future. Fingers crossed on that front, it would be great to get a few more people playing.